Gray Television Adopts Hybrid News Gathering Solution

Worked with On Call to create a new satellite and cellular newsgathering system for twenty stations

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/6/2012 5:08:50 PM

Gray Television Group has agreed to purchase twenty QuickSPOT automated satellite news gathering systems from On Call Communications as part of the creation of a new newsgathering system that will use both satellite and cellular 3G video encoders.

In addition to the reliable satellite bandwidth supplied by On Call's automated IP satellite system, Gray selected On Call because the vendor was willing to work with Gray on creating a system that would combine Gray's existing portable 3G backpack video encoders and with On Call's QuickSPOT broadcast satellite system.

"The QuickSPOT system gives our team the same flexibility and anytime access to bandwidth that we're accustomed to with cellular service; it's available instantly, any time and without any scheduling," explained Jim Ocon, VP of technology for the Gray TV station group in a statement. "Over the next year we plan to outfit all 36 of our stations with these units. Our test unit was an outstanding success during the recent Colorado Springs fires, letting us cover the fires live in locations where other stations don't have live coverage capabilities."

The idea for the combined system came when On Call noticed how many of their clients and prospects were already using cellular bonding technologies, which had a number of advantages but were not always reliable because of poor cellular signals in some areas.

To overcome that problem, On Call and Gray TV worked together to develop a system that offers both satellite and 3G connectivity and has the advantage of lowering capital costs by using existing equipment.